264 EEroRT— 1889. 



(e) That secondary, * modernised,' and technical schools should be 

 established out of ancient endowments and by contributions 

 from ' local authorities.* 



VIII. The Technical Education Bill (1889) and the teaching of chemistry 



in public elementary schools. 



This Bill, introduced by Sir Henry Roscoe on behalf of the National 

 Association for the Promotion of Technical Education, would, if passed 

 in its present form, make the following changes : — 



(a) School boards or local authorities, or both, would be enabled to 

 establish day or evening classes and provide laboratories, 

 apparatus, and collections, &c., for the teaching of chemistry 

 in public elementary schools and to Tnaintain them from the 

 ' local rates,' with aid from the Education or Science and 

 Art Department, or both, under conditions to be defined by 

 special minutes of the departments. Admission to such 

 classes wotdd not necessarily be restricted to children above the 

 fourth standard, although power is given to impose an 

 entrance examination in reading, writing, and arithmetic. 



(J) School boards or local authorities might also contribute directly 

 or by payment of the fees of deserving students or by means 

 of scholarships to the aid of the teaching of chemistry in any 

 elementary, secondary, or technical school or in a college, and 

 grants in aid would be obtainable by schools from the Science 

 and Art Department. 



(c) Chemical instruction provided under this Act in public ele- 

 mentary schools would be under the inspection both of the 

 Whitehall and South Kensington inspectors.' 



The Technical Education Bill would thus affect the teaching of 

 chemistry favourably as regards secondary and higher instruction, 

 enabling the school boards and local authorities to make direct con- 

 tributions to mechanics' institutes, technical schools, grammar schools, 

 and colleges, as well as to their own technical classes in elementary 

 schools. It is difficult to say how far it would affect the teaching of 

 chemistry in bond fide elementary schools ; but it seems to aim either at 

 encouraging the optional subject, elementary science, and the specific 

 subject, chemistry, and increasing the grants on them indirectly, or at 

 enabling children to receive chemical instruction of the South Kensing- 

 ton type in the early standards irrespective of the three R's. If the Bill 

 passes in its present form, there will apparently be three ways of taking 

 chemistry in an elementary school, viz. (1) as a specific subject under the 

 Whitehall Department ; (2) as a science subject under South Kensing- 

 ton ; (3) as a technical subject under both. The educational aim is the 

 same in all three cases, and it seems a great pity that the small amount 

 of simple science teaching that is required for children in legitimate 

 elementary schools should be so complicated in administration. It would 

 seem that a simple alteration of the code is required to give a proper 

 basis for technical instruction, and that a technical or secondary 

 instruction Bill would be more fittingly limited to technical and secon- 

 dary schools. 



• The important innovations are italicised. 



